Published 8:00 pm, Wednesday, February 6, 2002

Prior to Wednesday's Dow High-Midland hockey game, Chargers coach Dick Blasy was honored for his 25 years of coaching. When the game started, it probably felt to Charger fans that the first period took 25 years to play.

Midland High, ranked ninth in Division II, scored four goals in the first nine minutes en route to a 6-2 Saginaw Valley League victory at the Civic Arena. The win all but guarantees the Chemics (10-4-2 overall, 5-0 SVL) the league crown.

"Our forechecking was really good," Midland High coach Jeff Brown said. "We moved the puck pretty well. It was a good win."

The Chemics needed just 43 seconds to jump on top. Hays got loose on a breakaway and beat Dow goalie Carson Beins high with a backhand. McCoy and Lorden picked up assists.

However, Dow came right back to even the score at 1-1. At 2:22, Mike Tunnicliffe fired a shot at Midland netminder John Roy. Roy stopped it but Tunnicliffe got his own rebound and poked it in.

"I thought that would pick us up," Blasy said. "But then we came back and didn't play good defense in the first period. Midland just capitalized on our mistakes."

Then the floodgate opened. Just over a minute later, Upchurch took a perfect centering pass and beat Beins from point-blank range for a 2-1 lead.

At 8:44, Midland extended the lead to 3-1 as Lorden picked up a loose puck in the slot and flipped it into an open net. Beins made the original save on Baum. But Dow was unable to clear the puck away from the goal.

Just 48 seconds later, Mike Naeger scored in almost identical fashion as Lorden. Beins made a save before losing the puck in the slot. Naeger skated around a pile of players in front of the net and found himself with an empty net to shoot at.

"That got us fired up a lot," Hays said of the four-goal outburst. "It set the pace for the whole game. We didn't let up too much after that."

Midland, which held an 18-10 shot advantage in the first, held a 4-1 lead at intermission.

"That's where we've been immature all year long," Blasy said. "We let things happen to us in spurts. We're not making the consistent improvements that we should be making.

"We play good defense in spurts and we play bad defense in spurts. We can attack in spurts but we can't do it consistently."

In the second period, Beins put on a goaltending show. Midland fired 16 shots at Beins in the period. But the only one that found the back of the net was Ken Hoffman's backhand from in front of the goal at the 13:05 mark.

"That first period kind of gave us a cushion," Brown said. "We continued to play well. We had a lot of opportunities but their goalie played well. He kept them in it."

Midland extended the lead to 6-1 at 8:05 of the third as Sean Hoffman's wrister from the slot area beat Beins.

The Chargers completed the scoring with 5:55 left on a Radler tally. Billy Mault and Dave Fazzoni picked up assists.

Beins made 35 saves for the Chargers while Roy stopped 20 shots for Midland.

The Chargers were 0 of 5 on the power play while Midland came up empty on its three extra-man chances.

The Chargers are back in action Friday afternoon at home against Flint Southwestern in a rescheduled contest. Game time is 2:30 p.m. at the Civic Arena. Midland travels to Grand Blanc next Wednesday.

Midland's Brad Lorden gets tripped up and hits the ice after getting the puck around H.H. Dow High's Joe Iacco in the first period Wednesday night.

Midland's Victor Sheridan (8) applies the defense as H.H. Dow High's Dan Born attempts to score on goalie John Roy.